PASSENGER PIGEON. 273 



This genus, the characters of which were first published in 

 the third volume of the Zoological Journal, page 362, was 

 instituted by Mr. Swainson, for the reception of the Columha 

 viigratoria, and Columha Carolinensis of authors, birds 

 which, Mr. Selby observes in the volume quoted, " though 

 nearly allied in other characters, are distinguished from the 

 rest of the Turtles by the greater length of their wings and 

 tail, those essential organs of motion, the extra developcment 

 of which necessarily indicates an economy and mode of life 

 different from that of those species where these members are 

 comparatively short, and differently proportioned."" 



This beautiful Pigeon is a native of North America, over 

 nearly the whole of which immense continent it occasionally 

 rambles, the country to the west of the Rocky Mountains 

 only excepted. According to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in 

 the country round Hudson's Bay, where they usually remain 

 as late as December, feeding, when the ground is covered 

 with snow, on the buds of juniper. Dr. Richardson says this 

 celebrated bird arrives in the fur-countries in the latter end 

 of May, and departs in October. It annually attains the 

 sixty-second degree of latitude in the warmer central districts, 

 but reaches the fifty-eighth parallel on the coast of Hudson's 

 Bay in very fine summers only. Mr. Hutchins mentions a 

 flock of these Pigeons visiting and staying two days at York 

 Factory in 1775, as a remarkable occurrence. Wilson says 

 they spread over the whole of Canada ; Avere seen by Captain 

 Lewis and his companions near the great falls of the Missouri, 

 upwards of two thousand five hundred miles from its mouth, 

 reckoning the meanderings of the river ; were also met with 

 in the interior of Louisiana by Colonel Pike ; and extend 

 their ranQ-e as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, occasionallv 

 visiting or breeding in almost every quarter of the United 

 States. 



Captain James Ross, in the Natural History portion of the 



VOL. II. T 



